Important, Interstate Shipment of Black Carp Would Be Banned Under
Rule Proposed By Wildlife Agency

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 30, 2002

Contact:Mitch Snow, 202/219-9807

The black
carp, used by American aquaculture farmers to control snails
but feared by scientists who see potential widespread damage should
the fish escape into the wild, would be banned from further importation
into the United States as well as in interstate transport under a U.S.
Fish and Wildlife proposal to name the black carp as an injurious
species.

The proposed rule, published in today's Federal Register, would invoke
the Injurious Wildlife Provision of the Lacey
Act, and is in response to concerns about the possible impact
of black carp on imperiled native mussels and snails in the Mississippi
River basin, outlined in a petition to the Service by the Mississippi
Interstate Cooperative Resources Association. The only exceptions to
the bans imposed would be for zoological, educational, medical or scientific
purposes.

Black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus), also known as snail carp,
Chinese black carp, black amur, Chinese roach and black Chinese roach,
is a freshwater fish that inhabits lakes and lower reaches of rivers
in the wild. It was first brought to the U.S. in the early 1970s in
a shipment of imported grass carp that were shipped to a private fish
farm in Arkansas.

A second introduction occurred in the early 1980s when the fish was
imported as food and as a biological control agent to combat the spread
of yellow grub (Clinostomum margaritum) in aquaculture farms.
Unlike other species of Asian carp, black carp have not been found in
the wild.

The black carp, native to parts of China, Russia and Vietnam, can
reach 5 feet in length, weigh up to 150 pounds and live up to 15 years.
A single female can produce 129,000 to 1.18 million eggs. Black carp
feed on zooplankton and fingerlings when small, but as adults, their
powerful teeth permit the black carp to crush the thick shells of large
mollusks.

Yellow grubs, which are carried by the ram's horn snail, appear to
be controlled with the elimination of the snail from aquaculture farms,
especially those populated by channel catfish and certain species of
striped bass, and black carp have been found to be effective in feeding
on the snail.

It is not known how many of the 396 catfish aquaculture facilities
in North Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida
might be threatened by yellow grubs, but data presented by the National
Warmwater Aquaculture Center at Mississippi State University
at an Asian Carp Workshop in April, 2000, suggested that only 1.5 percent
of existing catfish farms and one research station had permits for black
carp, and five additional farms and another research station were awaiting
approval.

However effective black carp might be in the control of yellow grubs,
there are alternative means: chemical control with hydrated lime, copper
sulfate and aquatic herbicides that have been shown to greatly reduce
the snail population and in conjunction with biological control, can
eliminate snail infestation during catfish production.

Were black carp to escape from aquaculture ponds and enter rivers
and tributaries of the lower Mississippi River, they would pose a "significant
threat," the Service reported, to commercial shellfish stocks and
threatened and endangered mollusks. "The value of the potential
loss to the citizens of the affected States cannot be estimated at this
time, but it is believed to be substantial," according to a Service
document. Other species of Asian carp which are established in the wild
have caused significant ecological impacts in the Mississippi Basin.

Freshwater mussels, while providing valuable service as natural filters,
are also harvested and used to make seeds for cultured pearls. Black
carp that escape into the wild may pose a grave threat to that industry
as well.

Public comment on the proposal to list the black carp as an injurious
species under the
Lacey Act will remain open for 60 days. Comments should be mailed to
the Chief, Division of Environmental Quality, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22203, transmitted
by fax to the same address at 703-358-1800 or sent by e-mail to blackcarp@fws.gov
in an SCCII format.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency
responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife
and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American
people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge
System which encompasses nearly 540 national wildlife refuges, thousands
of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates
70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological
services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws,
administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations,
restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife
habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation
efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds
of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting and fishing
equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.